Longtime upstate Congresswoman Louise Slaughter told Keith Olbermann last night that Clarence Thomas should retroactively recuse himself because his wife, Virginia Thomas, stood to financially benefit from the ruling.

“Of course, his wife can work,” Ms. Slaughter said. “But the fact is there are only nine justice on that Supreme Court and it certainly should be a given that a family member of any of those people lucky enough to be a Supreme Court justice should not in any way involve themselves in matters that will go before that court. Now, we all know that she worked very hard for the Citizens United case, which I think is one of the most egregious things that have ever happened in the United States Supreme Court.”

Retroactive recusal is rare, but has occurred before (but not, to my knowledge for a Supreme Court case.)

If it occurred here it would overturn the 5-4 decision.

“There is such a thing as a retroactive recusal,” she said. “We’re looking into that. That case, if you remember, was decided 5-4. If we could take away his vote, we could wipe that out. It would lose. How ’bout that?”